Fukushiro Nukaga (top R), chairman of the lower house special committee, is surrounded by opposition lawmakers during a vote on a state secrets act at the parliament in Tokyo November 26, 2013. (Reuters/Toru Hanai) / Reuters

Japan’s lower house has passed a heavy-handed state secrets act despite fears that it will have severe repercussions for state freedoms. Officials will now face a maximum punishment of ten years in prison if they are found to have leaked to the press.

Japan’s Diet (parliament) passed the bill, which is aimed at
expanding the definition of a state secret and place increasing
penalties upon anyone deemed a leaker. The move will apparently
prevent media accessing information on four sensitive areas:
defense, diplomacy, counter-terrorism and counter-espionage.

The information will be further divided into 23 types. Top
officials from all departments would have the power to declare
issues ‘secret’. The ‘secrets’ could then be kept classified for
up to 60 years.

Journalists and other private sector parties could also receive
up to five years imprisonment if they are found to be using
‘grossly inappropriate’ means to acquire information.

Such restrictions could spill over into the nuclear industry. The
topic is particularly sensitive in the face of March 2011’s
Fukushima nuclear disaster, which drove over 160,000 residents
from their homes.

“Information on the vulnerability of nuclear power plants
could be classified as special secrets, along with plans on how
to guard the plants,” Yutaka Saito, a lawyer and a member of
the Japan Federation of Bar Associations' task force on the bill,
told Reuters.

“If so, anyone who has blown the whistle from the inside to
warn of the danger of nuclear power plants will be punished,”
Saito said.

The bill was adopted through majority vote by the ruling
coalition after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic
Party (LDP), New Komeito, and the Opposition Your Party all
agreed to revisions last week to gain the votes of small
conservative opposition parties.

The move comes despite overwhelming public opposition, and after
members of opposition parties - including the Democratic
Party of Japan (DPJ), the Japan Restoration Party, the Japanese
Communist Party and the People's Life Party – said that
insufficient debate had been conducted prior to the vote. Critics
allege that changes to the bill were merely cosmetic, and
requested that it not be brought to vote. Regardless, the
legislation was approved after only a few hours worth of
delay.

Nearly 63 percent of respondents to a Kyodo news agency survey
expressed concerns about the bill last week, and its discussion
triggered protests by hundreds of people outside of parliament on
Tuesday. Thousands gathered in a Tokyo park the previous week to
rally against the bill.

“We revised the proposal as much as possible to address the
concerns held by the public,” Gen Nakatani, an LDP director,
said following the vote, while Atsushi Oshima, a DPJ director
declared that it had been a “defeat for the legislative
branch.”

The bill has now been sent to the Diet’s Upper House for
consideration, where it will likely pass without any difficulty.
The LDP and its junior partner hold a solid majority in both
houses.
“Clearly, there will be a chilling effect on access to a wide
range of information,” said Meiji University law professor,
Lawrence Repeta, said. “It is clearly aimed at news media to
block reporting in a way that may be critical of the government
on a wide range of sensitive issues,” he added.

Abe has stated that the law is vital in the development of a
US-style National Security Council to coordinate foreign policy
and security while negotiating with allies such as the US over
the possible sharing of information.

“My biggest concern is that it would be more difficult for the
people to see the government's decision-making process,” said
Kyouji Yanagisawa, a former defense official who was in charge of
national security in the Prime Minister's Office in 2004-2009.
“That means we can't check how or where the government made
mistakes, or help the government make a wise decision.”